You and Carol awoke before dawn by active
cats. You had a long soaker bath while Carol had breakfast and read the paper. Before
awaken you had John Milton on mind and how beautiful Paradise Lost is written.
You read a couple of the usual selections in Mrs. Gossett’s British literature
class where Beowulf was your favorite until MacBeth, which was your favorite
until Paradise Lost. Here were your favorite lines at that time.
** **
Th'
infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird
up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv'd [ 35 ]
The
Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had
cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of
Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To
set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He
trusted to have equal'd the most High, [ 40 ]
If
he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against
the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais'd
impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud
With
vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie [ 45 ]
With
hideous ruine and combustion down
To
bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In
Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who
durst defie th' Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night [ 50 ]
To
mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay
vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded
though immortal: But his doom
Reserv'd
him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both
of lost happiness and lasting pain [ 55 ]
Torments
him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That
witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt
with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At
once as far as Angels kenn he views
The
dismal Situation waste and wilde, [ 60 ]
A
Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As
one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No
light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd
onely to discover sights of woe,
Regions
of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [ 65 ]
And
rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That
comes to all; but torture without end
Still
urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With
ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd:
Such
place Eternal Justice had prepar'd [ 70 ]
For
those rebellious, here thir Prison
ordain'd
In
utter darkness, and thir portion set
As
far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
As
from the Center thrice to th’ utmost Pole.
O
how unlike the place from whence they fell! [ 75 ]
There
the companions of his fall, o'rewhelm'd
With
Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He
soon discerns, and weltring by his side
One
next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long
after known in Palestine, and nam'd [ 80 ]
Beelzebub. To
whom th' Arch-Enemy,
And
thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus
began.
From Paradise Lost, Book One
** **
1027
hours. What a magnificent selection of descriptive words. I am still impressed.
In college I read the whole work for a class I created and Dr. John Coulter
gave me credit for – Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. But
I cannot leave this first book without the addition of another scene of
description and dialogue – some of the best lines ever written in the English
language.
** **
Is
this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said
then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That
we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For
that celestial light? Be it so, since he [ 245 ]
Who
now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What
shall be right: fardest from him is best
Whom
reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above
his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where
Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail [ 250 ]
Infernal
world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive
thy new Possessor: One who brings
A
mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can
make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. [ 255 ]
What
matter where, if I be still the same,
And
what I should be, all but less then he
Whom
Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We
shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here
for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here
we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To
reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better
to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.
But
wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th'
associates and copartners of our loss [ 265 ]
Lye
thus astonisht on th' oblivious Pool,
And
call them not to share with us their part
In
this unhappy Mansion, or once more
With
rallied Arms to try what may be yet
Regaind in Heav'n, or what more
lost in Hell? [ 270 ]
From Paradise Lost, Book One
** **
1039
hours. I think the writer of Shakespeare would be in a fit of jealousy upon
reading/hearing such passages for the first time.
You are lost in the dark thicket of such
words and their meanings boy. – Amorella
1043 hours. I am still amazed not lost and the stroke of Milton’s
cadence. It is in such poetic lines of classical reasoning as this that I would
have Elderfelder the babe dance.
Mid-afternoon.
Before sitting adjacent to Kenwood Road in Blue Ash after sharing a great tuna
sandwich with lettuce and tomato and two fresh chocolate chip cookies from Marx
Bagels, you stopped at the doctor’s office for your flu shot. Carol has to wait
until next week for hers. Earlier you worked more on the yard prepping areas
that had not come up with more grass seed then thinly covering the area with
top soil and watering, soaking the paste together so it might survive tonight
and tomorrow’s rainstorms. – Amorella
1508 hours. I remember doing this last year about this
time. Some seeds grew and other areas did not, but it was soon enough
weather-wise and it most all came up before mid-November and that first
extensive snow. It is 70 degrees and we have the windows down and the top open
on the Honda. Nice day. Carol is on page 574 of a Dave Balducci book and I am
mostly watching traffic go by. The winds are picking up out of the south, the
flag is mostly straight out and a few clouds have darker bottoms.
You watched “Manhattan”, “CSI” and a
“Revenge” as well as NBC News after taken an hour and a half nap before supper
of left over still excellent (cold) meatloaf and raw carrots. - Amorella
2227 hours. What is the theme of Dead 7? I thought the
Milton/Paradise Lost lines might be a precursor to Dead 7 but Elderfelder
changed that.
Not necessarily, boy. We are moving to the
thoughts of one of the ancient dead marsupial humanoids, a shaman, the spirit
of Cleric who saved Elderfelder in real life not the romanticized version in
storytelling. This will be a lead in of sorts to Pouch Seven. – Amorella
2235 hours. This was unthought consciously until I just
read it on the screen. I suspect the squirrel-like helper myth of Elderfelder
came from Romulus and Remus legends on the founding of Rome. Does this ghostly
Cleric engage Merlyn or is it the other way around? I have never thought of two
ghosts one from each species actually meeting. Where is the setting?
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